The Sword - Battle Lines pt. 1

So good morning. One church. It's always it's always a pleasure to be in front of you, especially when you're just maybe a fill in, because this is the Twins birthday this weekend. They were partying hard and in a pastoring, it's hard to prepare a sermon. So he so he says, hey, can you preach? I'm I'm checking to take what happened last year and someone preached during your birthday we I I've seen the pattern here I've seen a pattern.

But no I'm always like the opportunity to to come before the church. So we're starting a series on spiritual warfare. And yeah, well, I guess I decided, okay, we got some warriors out there. Amen. I gave the control booth that booth in the back that that does everything per Scott Right. If they could put that picture up. Is it up okay?

Oh, yeah. There we go. There you go. I want this. I want this to marinate and use your spirit as as we go through this, this, this, this, this sermon series. And as I speak, it's funny. I see the person laughing, and they sent me this about a week and a half ago, and I was like, man, this right here, you know, we're we're talking about spiritual warfare.

And we have as believers, we have some promises and we have some things that are sure in our wok. What I mean by that is we know that thing. We can be sure of that God loves us. We know that he'll never leave us nor forsake us. We know that there's promises for those that believe. But there's another thing that we can be assured of is that we as believers, I mean nonbelievers too, we will encounter spiritual warfare.

That that's that's a sure thing. I mean, there's not news. No one in no way around that. That's what it is. And in that I just want us to see that, you know, we have we see Jesus a lot of times is the peace and loving Jesus. Or we say that hippie Jesus or that Jesus, that, that, or here was and we have that Jesus.

That's a Bruce Banner Jesus. But if you see that picture, we have an Incredible Hulk. Jesus, you know, a lot of times we don't operate like that. There's an Incredible Hulk Jesus in there that's spreads to the Hulk smash on the enemy that comes on that battle line right there. You know, there's a line in the sand. It's like Jesus bending down windows, Windows Pharisees about the total song, the battle line right here.

What's going to happen? No fear that they're going to throw the stone because he no, that's that's the Jesus we got in there. And I want to I want us to as we go through this sermon series, I go to my sermon that you remember that's in you. Because like I said, one thing for sure, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rules of the darkness, against the spiritual wickedness in high places.

So so that's there. But when you look at that picture, would you remember the man is though we walk in the flesh. We do not war according to the flesh. So my my war is not with that person that coming against me. My war is not with the systems of this world. That's not my that's war. Now. We're my war.

Is this what's behind that? And then with that, what it says, the next verse says, it says, For the weapons of our warfare are not of flesh, but divinely powerful. The destruction of forces is, force says. And the only way we're going to put out a fortress is we get that big, bulky Jesus, this is inside side of us that wants to flip tables and understand that's the power and authority that we walk in.

And so so our prayer by the end of this sermon series is that that we operate, we live in the confidence that this picture of Christ is living inside of us, not our strength, but but his strength. Because if for one minute we think we can go deeper in our relationship with Christ, I think we become become more intimate with our Lord.

I think we can go and make disciples think, we can heal the sick, think we can cast out the mystic. We can go into the communities and preach the gospel, think we can start a revival without or participate or participating in spiritual warfare. We're sadly mistaken. Satan in his army want nothing more than to keep us on the sideline for us to remain shallow.

Christians, they are okay with us playing church rather than being the capital See church and we ignore the truth that there is a say in that there are powers and principalities and ignoring that they are doing everything they can to keep us captive and from walking the power of authority we were created and called us to be. They're okay with that.

We need to understand the spiritual warfare we face and how to combat it. That's imperative not only for our individual who lives and walks, but also a fill in filling the great Commission, you know, which is the pulling down a stronghold on our family members or friends and communities and leading them to the one who can truly set them free.

To the victor goes the spoils of victory. And the spoils do not come without a fight or warfare. We have an adversary who wants to steal, kill, destroy, and God is counting on us to stand up to the enemy and do His will and accomplish his work. So with that in mind or follow Scripture today we'll be out of Luke Chapter four, verses one through 14.

And I'm gonna tell you, if you guys don't have a who can prepare the way for your scripts, your sermon, man, you know you miss him, man. She hit on like ten top example on top talk about right now I could just go sit down, but but that's, that's the that's the. That's the greatness of God. No, He he makes sure he prepares a way for for his word to come forth.

So Luke, chapter four, verses one through 14 that says Jesus full of this Holy Spirit, returned from the door and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they had ended, he became hungry. And the devil said to him, If you are the son of God, tell the stone to become bread.

And Jesus answered him and said it was written Man shall not live on bread alone. And he led him up and showed him a moment of time. And a devil said to him, I will give you all the domain of his glory, for it has been handed over to me and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you worship before me, it shall be yours.

Jesus, Answer them and said it is written. You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only. And He led him to Jerusalem. And here he'll stand on the pinnacle of the temple and say to him, If you are the Son of God, fill yourself down here for his reign. He will command his angels concerning you to guard you, and on their hands they will bear you up so that you will know that you will not strike your foot against the stone.

And Jesus answered him and said to him, It is said you shall not put the Lord God to the test. When the devil have finished every temptation, and He left him until an opportune time, and Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Holy Spirit of the Spirit and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district with that Scripture.

Man, I'm going to talk to you today. In regards to spiritual swordsman, Lord is preaching time. Preach is not easy, but it is made easier by your Holy Spirit. So that I ask that I decrease and that you in that you may increase. And at the end you get all the honor, all the glory and all the praise and Jesus name.

Amen. So when we talk about the form of God, the only offensive weapon mentioned in the armor of God is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. We have all these the defensive armors for protection. But one offensive weapon, one of the ways the enemy attacks us is by subtly trying to twist the meaning of the word of God.

You know, challenge, challenge. Changing a word here or omitting a word dear. And that could totally throw off our understanding of what God said. You know, it causes doubt, confusion and or questioning of who we are and who God is, just as God is is saying yesterday, today and forevermore. So is Satan in his army. They're the same as well.

He tricks and traps his tricks and traps at the same yesterday, today and forever more for the guard from the guards who are vocal scripture of Jesus in the wilderness and his attacks on us today. You know, Scripture says my people die for lack of knowledge, lack of desire to read the word and not just read the word like our favorite novel novel, but to go deep in it, to study it, to meditate on a day and night, to eat it like bread that like that bread that that is every word that preceded it out of the mouth of God, God commanded us to do.

Many commanded as many times throughout the Bible to do this no for will make us prosperous. This is what the Bible said. All the while the enemy is sitting back laughing at us. Fake, lukewarm Christians, you know, all talk, no action, all bark, no bite. You know, the business busyness of our days, you know, and and things of the world, keeping us from reading and meditating on the word.

So the enemy whispers in our ears. He says, Surely you will not die. Then you say that God loves you. Why are you still walking around Around in the desert? You can't catch a break. You light bill pass. Do you rent? Pass? Do your car. No pass. Do. I thought he would open up the windows of heaven for you.

No one likes you. You're ugly. I mean, those are all the things that the enemy will whisperer do to us throughout our lives. And because we don't know the Word of God and His promises to us who we are, him, the power authority we have, we succumb to the wind in a ways and a spiritual warfare to enemy attacks us with, and we stay defeated.

We retreat to the vices of the world, you know, the drugs, alcohol to sex and worse, to the condemnation that the worse as there is none in Christ Jesus. So when I read the word of God, I always ask him as the Holy Spirit is show me that the words, that of a pause pop out to me, like jump out of the page to me, you know, So when I do, I go to a concordance right and look up the word the Hebrew or Greek, depending on which Old and New Testament.

And so there will be a number words I mentioned today where I'll speak of the meaning in the Greek, and it's a good way to see what God is truly, truly saying in that particular scripture or passage. So when I read the word in the armor of God, I saw jumped out at me, right? So so I looked it up in an in Greek.

It's it's I'm not going to try to pronounce it. It just means short sword or dagger. I was like, I mean, when you see when you see the pictures, the armor of God, you see a big sword. It's always a huge sword. But in the Greek, the meaning is a short sword or a dagger. So I'm like, I I'm not I'm not a swordsman.

So let me. Was that what is what's the use of a dagger? What's the pros and cons of using a smaller sort of a dagger? So so I look and I said, it's an offensive weapon. It allows us to be more agile, one that we can easily thrust or stand. So now we can move within labor and and it's something that we can move around, you know, so like, so when so it tells me that the warfare is close in proximity.

Come on now. So, so we think this is spiritual warfare is not some far away. It's not, it's not miles away. No. The enemy's coming to your place right now. So your domain. So wherever you were, you stay. And he's ready to fight. He's bringing a battle to you. So. So if the enemy. So since I had his dagger, the enemy comes behind me and says, whispered in my ear, I can just go like this.

Get behind me. Say, you know what I mean? Or I say, I said, I'm here not to tell you. No, I mean so. So I can move. But now hold up. But look, man, there is one thing that caught my attention and it said that daggers do do have a lower attacking power and are more dependent on the power of the user.

Don't miss that. The attacking power of our short of sort of dagger is dependent on the power of us. I know that the Scripture says the word is spear, which is the word of God. So the sort of spear which is where God. So the more word I know, the more I meditate on it, the more I study it, the more I pray it, the more powerful, the more powerful my attack against the enemy will be.

If we were continually moved by the wind in a ways in our lives, then I think we may need to assess our time in the world and not only our time in the world, but how seriously are we taking our time? In a word, how important is it to us? Do we want to just read the word or do we want to become like the word?

And we can't be walking around and around in a weird wilderness like, God, where are you? And he's sending us manna from heaven and we're not accepting it, you know? I mean, we're we're not receiving it. We're not letting it sustain us. We're not letting it strengthen us. Man doesn't live off real alone. But every word that preceded it out of the mouth of God, I'm.

I think I'm getting ahead of myself. So let's get into focus. Scripture, real quick. All right. So what we see in Luke chapter four, verses one, 414, we see Jesus the word, the second Adam doing what? The first Adam failed to do. Jesus picked up his sword and used the Word of God to resist Satan and make him flee.

Jesus was baptized. He was baptized in the river. He was filled with the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit led him right into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for 40 days, no food. And when he became hungry, the devil attacking Jesus is weak, weak. His first moment in trying to defeat Jesus by the things that are not of the Father, which are the less the flesh, the loss of the eyes and the pride of life.

These are the things that trip us up in our weakest moment when we partake in the things that give us the flesh, the lust of the eyes, of the pride of life. We're susceptible to the enemies traps. These are the moments the enemy will pounce with all his might In this moment as 100% man, Jesus could truly be tested.

He had to know our temptations if he was to help us through them. As the Scripture states, you know, he must first band a strong man if he is afterwards, boyo. His house. And that's just what Jesus did the enemy. So the first temptation I want to talk about is in the Scripture is that Jesus was tempted to distrust God, Satan in his army, know from experience that that of their victory, most of their victories come from those that appeal to the needs and appetites of our flesh.

Satan knew Jesus was hungry, so he started with the weakness of the flesh. The enemy started off his questions by speaking to the authority of Jesus position. If that are the Son of God. He knew. He knew Jesus was just baptizing and God came out of heaven was like my son, who I'm well, please, you know. So at his baptism and understand that we are his sons and daughters, well, we're co heirs, we're grafted in.

So the enemy will say the same thing to you. So say you say you're the son of God. Surely you can turn a stone and stone into bread. But Jesus starts his answer with it is written Man, Right? So I want to deal with the man for I mean, it is written in man are two very important things here.

First, I'll deal with the man first. The man, the man statement by stating man he is resisting of the devil, suggesting Jesus did not remove his humanness. He took on, for our sakes, accepting the commandments. We live under his condition. So in that moment, Jesus was say, I'm still you. I'm like, Man, I'm not going to just pull my 40.

He got on as, No, I'm I'm going to show you how to walk this thing out as man. He he showed that he can relate to us in that he didn't take it off. He no, he said, I'm under the same commandments that you guys are under two now for two, it is written part of a response. This is important.

He said. It is written Man shall not live on bread alone, but we know in the Matthew part, he adds, But every word proceeded out of the mouth of God in this statement. Jesus. Not only that said, not only do I have the written word, but I also had that name a word that spoken. Now word from God, that word at every that that every word proceeded out of mouth of God.

Proceed. If is is right now it's a verb. It's coming. So the written word is dear, you know. But he said, I get this Raymond word, too. I got both. I got both right. And that. And that's what sets us apart from the enemy and gives us a leg up. Jesus is telling us we need to have that relationship with God where we hear a right now word from God as well.

But we can't live just off the written word. Hebrew four for 12 reminds us the word is alive and active. If we only have the written word, then we become like the Pharisees and Savages. These all written were with no intimate relation with God, where He speaks out to Jesus. Jesus was CO and Deuteronomy eight three. It tells us that bread written word is not only thing that keeping us in life, but God can feed us with the rain word now as well as He will.

He will provide just like he did for Israel in the wilderness, who receive fresh man every day, fresh water from God, fresh bread from God every day. Bye. By His divine will He will provide all things are added for those who seek first the Kingdom of God in all His righteousness. But if you don't know these promises in the Word and hear from the Holy Spirit, then you'll be operating by your own mind in your own strength.

This example of God's Word and the temptation of the Word teaches us how, how innocent and necessary once are the levers the devil will pull to overtake our souls. God's providence and sustenance is what is best for us, not our own, which is shaped by the world in our flesh. So we see the second, second temptation. And that temptation was to tempt Jesus to obtain his dominion by false means.

Satan was going to try a subtler way. He said, I ain't giving up. No, I'm at a disadvantage, but I'm going to keep going. So where he couldn't getting by as flesh, he said he decided to set his sights on the last of the eyes where the flesh or since fails, ambition may succeed. Come on now. Church Satan said, I'm going to set my trap on Jesus's relation to the world.

He showed him all the kingdoms of the world and said, I'll give you these, and they're glory for they are mine to do whatever I want with which is true. I mean, remember that not only is he the father of lies, but he's also the prince of the world said he said, I'll give you these and they're glory, for they are mine to do whatever with, you know.

So look at that. Look at this world with the violence, the crime, the hate and oppression. How many kingdoms have been built upon those pillars and how freely without fear they operate even in the midst of the believers? Come on now. Say Satan was trying to play on Jesus desire to fulfill his purpose of becoming king of the world.

He was like, I'll give you all that. You know, all this now without the sacrifice and other stuff, just worship me. Isn't that some of us? Because some of us say we've been tempted like that. I know I have to gain and accomplish good things by by questionable means. God told us you will lead this or he says you will get that promotion or that'll be your ministry or you'll get married.

One day. Right then. Then we start going through the process, the pruning, the sacrifice, the struggle, the delay, waiting. You know, discouragement and disappointment sets in. Then enemy comes right in. Will he be like, Hey, look, look, look at Elder so-and-so. They're over there cutting up. Look, why still see, I told you, go tell the pastor, you know you're next in line.

I come on. Or he be like, look, he'd be like, look, Billy gossiping about the supervisor. I bet if you tell, they will promote you to the to lead salesman on that account. Our desire to be on top in the limelight, our love of money, the way it cleans us up and presents us to society are tools of the world that snares us into the enemy's traps.

The often they're not. We stay in the shallow. We like to stay on the surface of the word. When it comes to spiritual warfare, being a shallow Christian, we'll get you knocked around a beat down when you're at the beach, Right? And you know, you're sitting in the shallow. You know, when the waves come, it will push you back on the beach.

You're not shallow. It pushes you back on the beach sometimes or flip you over. And if you're standing up, don't even knock you down when you're in a shallow. But when you're a little further out right in the deep of the water, when the waves come, you can ride them. You just jump up like this, you know, and you keep on doing it and you write as it passes right into impact on you as less.

And after it passes, there's calmness out in the deep. This illustration is us. When we do not search the word versus those who do search the were. Nothing is shallow about the Holy Spirit. God is deep. Jesus is deep. The word is deep. The deep calls the deep. We're deep beings. Carrying the cross is deep. It requires deep training.

Jesus calling us to go deep. For there in the deep is where you obtain wisdom, the word and defeat the enemy that is trying to keep us from our purpose of fulfilling God's will. And we see this in Luke Chapter five, verses one through 11. And again, I'm not going to read the whole thing. I'm pulling out verses three, four or five for us for the purpose of this.

So verse three says, And Luke, chapter five, he says, And he which Jesus got into one of the boats, which was Sam, as we know, as Peter asked him to put out a little way from the land and he sat down and began teaching the people from the boat. Verse four When he had finished speaking, he said to Sam, put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch right?

And then verse five says, Terrible. Simon Answer said, Master, we worked hard all night in nothing, but I will do as you say and let down the nets. Jesus was teaching and the crowds were pressing around him in this scripture, right? So to better teach the large crowd, he seen Peter. I mean. Simon Peter chose his bow and said, Go out of little way.

And Simon obliged. And Jesus was teaching from the boat into shallow, right? So after he finished, Jesus said the Simon put out in a deep water and let that, let let your nets down for a catch. First thing I want to say about this, Jesus is calling us to deep water to cast our nets, right? Yes. We read this passage.

We know what the end of this passage says, right? It says at the end the result is being fisher of men. But there is something else out there in the deep water, something else out there, deep water. And the creek is bathos. It means death. Now, this Greek word is used one other time in the New Testament, first Corinthians 210.

It says For us, God revealed them. Them is the wisdom of God through the Spirit for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. What is the depths of God? And again, if you go first Corinthians 210 and look at verses six through nine, if we look at those preceding verses, we see that depths of God is God's wisdom.

It's a wisdom. The world doesn't. It says the reason the world doesn't understand or those or vote for those who remain is shallow per the Scripture. This this God's with wisdom is a mystery to the world, but not to those who go to the deep, but those who hear and obey Jesus command to go to deep water depths where God's wisdom is and cast or nets.

We will get a great quantity of it. Will we go to the place where the wisdom of God is a lot? Go deep into our study of the word searching. It will we go beyond the obvious when we initially see see it, when we read in the Word of God, we go beyond that like a couple of weeks ago, and it was up here, as she mentioned, the righteous fall seven times and and get back up.

I mean, great scripture. But if you go a little bit deeper in it, seven is the divine word of completion. Come on now. So what the scriptures saying is, I don't keep falling into I complete that thing. I overcome that day. I keep getting up. I'm a kick doing seven times tools to is completed. God is not about halfway doing anything he's saying.

He said, You're going to keep falling. You going keep falling until you get it. Okay that a simple or how about when the pastor preaches a word or Sunday and throughout the week you meditate on it and apply to your life to see if it truly comes alive. That's going into the deep. I'll give you a personal example.

When we all know that came from Pittsburgh, we moved out here three years ago and we came down here. I just started beginning to believe God, submit to God and really truly are living out what He called me to do, you know, preaching and teach and things like that. Before. I'm like, I can't do that. But I started.

I was always doing good things. God says, time to move my Oh, man. All right, so if you will tell me to move, you've got to make sure you put me in a place around a group of people. Rightly divide the word who are all about your business, who are all about carrying out the Great Commission. So we move down her 2019 for a year and a half was just by myself, outside of my wife and my kids, just by myself.

COVID happened. I had no relationship with people. I work from home. I'm just going from my bed to my desk downstairs, back to bed and my desk downstairs. You know, I me So what happens? It was drab place, right? Sounds like it's a desolate place, a solitude place all by myself, just me, my thoughts in enemy. So he start whispering to me.

Oh, what if I guy said he would never leave you to forsake you worse? Yeah, I thought. I thought he said, You hear great things for you. I mean, you just sit here doing nothing. I thought. I thought you meant something to him. And I started believing it a little bit. I wasn't depressed, but I started getting discouraged for a year and a half.

So now I'm not reading my word as much. I'm. I got no way to hold me accountable. So I'm watching TV all day. You know, I have a dream here or whatever. You know what I mean? Not doing the things I wasn't was doing up in Pittsburgh. So eventually, you know the story. God got me to one church, you know, I mean, I come in, so I'm sitting here, I'm build relationships with people, people reaching out, You know, I'm participating, but I'm still not walking in with God calling me to do.

I wasn't doing the things I was doing up there, but I'm participating. I'm not going to leadership say, Hey, you, I appreciate you. Let me let preach. I'm saying I teach, let me teach. I do none of that. So. Right. It was October. Right. And I notice because what I'm about to say, the date on my paper I wrote was October 25th.

So a day before that priest back to. Right. He preached on that and it was about weight. And you know what the scripture says record of vision is yet for the point of time it hastens towards the goal and it will not fail. The military's wait for it for certainly come. It will not delay that were hit me year and a half from down.

The word hit me. God was calling me out, trying to go to the tape with him. All right. So the next day I'll read it right. I'm going in, says Record Division. Okay, I got that for a point. It's out and hastens toward a goal. All right. So squall come military's hold. I'm not going say it's going take it out for a certainly will come and it will not delay.

Come on, guy, you confuse me. What it is. Just just do what he says. Write the vision down. Sorrow for things on a piece of paper. Write for things. A month later, October 25th, a month later, they said, Hey, Johnny. Hey, you want to help out and teach a couple classes? Boom. Cool. What's the deal? That was the first thing on my list a month later.

Hey, I got to opening a march. You want to preach? Boom. Second thing on my list for months, going deep in God's word. Listen to what he said. Getting a revelation on it. We're in a revelation on God. Move mountains. I said I didn't forget about you. The enemy was a liar. He was a liar. That desert season.

God will do that. I still got a couple of things on this thing come by. He says. It'll come. It won't delay, so it'll come back eventually. But what about this? We're in a place where we're. I don't know about you. I don't know how many times I walked into a conversation at one church and I was like, Why did I walk into this conversation?

There are so many people here. You are in conversation. You, you, you be like, I thought I knew the word, but they know the word right. So I remember one day I was walking through the halls and the Holy Spirit trip me. I tripped into this conversation with this person, right? I'm like, Man, So? So God was like, I mean, the person was like, he said, Hey, I was driving to work.

I put a word in my spirit. I had to pull over. I'm like, Cool, What do you say? He said, You know, he's talking about the parable, the muscle, see? Right. And see if I turn so across. So the parable to M.C. and I said, okay, y'all know that. I know, I know what you're talking about. He said, Does this person knows I'm talking about you know, He said, There's a muscle see, grow into a tree or a plant.

And I playing mostly I said, It goes into a tree. The parable says, A tree. He said, No, it grows into a plant. I'm like, Oh, man. All right, cool. So? So I said, so I could keep on going. He said, Why? He said, Why would Jesus say this here and say, That's something that was created to do something else grows into something else.

How come this thing didn't grow into what it was created do? And why would Jesus put this here in the Scripture? I'm like, I know what this person you think you know the answer, but you're scared to say the answer because you're going to be wrong. You know? I mean, even when you know the answer, you're saying, like Mattias said it, I said, this is to the Holy Spirit.

Right? So the first crack. So So I'm like, Oh, no, tell me, tell me. He said, Nah, just go look. He said, No, this basically you're saying go to the deep end. If you wherever you find, come back to me. You talk about it. So. So we're around people who will push us into the deep. So I go look at the scripture.

I'm like, All right. Says, the kingdom of heaven is like a must see which a man talking in his field and this is smaller than the other seas, but when it is full and grow, it is larger than the garden plains and become a tree so that the birds of the air in a nest in his branches. I don't know.

I couldn't see. I just see what we always normally see, that I grow big faith in God, things, all that nature. But then the Holy Spirit pull me too. There's a there's a there's a scripture quoted in this scripture. The birds of the air come and nest in his branches. Some, like I look at the cross verses is you see it in as equal 17 is equal.

31 Daniel four You see that scripture and in those scriptures about the birds of the air come and nest in his branches. It talks about a chosen tree, a cedar tree, right? And this tree grows up to be the biggest tree in the field. And the guardians and it's in is and everyone looks at it, everything looks up to and the branches go from here to here and the birds of the air rest in it and all the animals get shade.

They provide sudden sustenance. And in each scripture God comes and cuts the tree down. That is, tree was the chosen tree. It was the great tree. And then you see God raise up a dry tree. The dry tree, the desert tree. Now, why would you just say that here? I don't know. I don't go around and get any calls about me, so I'm going to stop there.

All right? I'm gonna stop there. No. Is. Is Jesus talking about something that's. That was created? Grow into something else, but then went on its own way? Do we see a a parallel to a Tower of Babel here? What I'll say is this to try to bring it here and here. The problem with our society is not a growing presence of evil, but the growing absence of God's people evils here.

But what is God's people doing? What are we growing into? Are we growing and operating who we were called to be or what to what the world to be? Or are we? Or do we start out on a good path? Then the enemy in the world got to us and we're operating like we're not supposed to. I don't know, just like I'm a go to that person to talk to them about and see what they say.

Come to talk to me about it, what you get from it. But that's going deep in God's Word. That's how we defeat the enemy you can't stay in the shallow and that source, the scriptures like this and think that you're going to win. As the preacher said, the battle line is drawn. Good, evil. What side are you on and are you willing to stand on this line?

Defended has to faith, has to flee in the light. So as the worshiping comes down, that's enough of your time. Let's say one more day we're called to preach the gospel. Go make disciples, heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons freely as we recede freely, we give our motto Our one church is the sick, one serve one sin one as we go out to do what Jesus, Commissioner to do, not only will we encounter our own personal spiritual warfare battles, but we also encounter an angry and determined enemy who does not want us to fulfill the commission given to us.

That means in our call to seek one, serve, one in sin, one, we will be knee deep in spiritual battles as well. But we must be united as one as the Father and Jesus were. We need to be creating an army of spiritual warriors trained in study to go deep in the water of God's Word, equipped with God's promises for His people, understanding the weapons of our warfare, the power and authority we have to rebuke to win in two ways.

Walk on water, step on the hands of serpents, of scorpions, knowing love never fails, and that the enemy, nor anything else cannot separate from the love of God. Seek one. Hey, Simon, check it out. Put out the boat a little while. Serve one while we out here. Sit here and take in all this teaching the foundation of the word of God.

Sin one put out into the deep water. Get that wisdom a guy while you're there. Fish some into sequence serve one sin One is not only about leading others of Christ, but it's also about helping remove them from their grasp. The enemy building them up and creating, among other things, more spiritual warriors to take the fight to the darkness of this world and bring forth the light of God.

So my prayer is, as we go into the worship song and we and you leave today, I prayed that God spoke something to you that that, that you that, that, that he's he's he's he's stirring it up in you. That that you go deep into the Word of God. That you that you that you did not just stay in the shadows, but seek it not just not just the written word, but spend time wanting to hear that ram a word that that word that that God still speaking today, even though the word of all is still speaking on a day, still has something for you, something for you that only you can do.

But if you don't know the words you're not going to hearing, That's how we determine whose voice we're listening to. And I'm just tell you, is that because I going to speak truth here, if you here you don't you haven't given your life to Christ, I'm telling you, you're at a disadvantage. The vanish for believers, those who believe in God, is that we have that big muscle.

Jesus behind us. And that doesn't mean if you haven't given your life to Christ that that big missile, Jesus doesn't want to be there for you. But you have to make that decision. You have to get to the end of yourself in the beginning of him. So. So if you don't know him, there's no special prayer you got to do.

But if you want to know him, if you've got a question about it, come speak to somebody. Speak to a pastor, speak to a deacon, Speak to somebody. You built a relationship here and ask them to help you walk. And what does it mean to become into a relationship with Christ? What is required of me? I'm telling you, what's required of you is not easy, but it's worth it.